{Reference Type}: Journal Article {Title}: The association between alcohol consumption and blood lipids in Chinese children and adolescent: findings from the China Health and Nutrition Survey. {Author}: Bu Q;Fang L;Huang B;Cai H;Pan Z; {Journal}: BMC Pediatr {Volume}: 24 {Issue}: 1 {Year}: 2024 May 9 {Factor}: 2.567 {DOI}: 10.1186/s12887-024-04807-x {Abstract}: BACKGROUND: Alcohol consumption by children and adolescents is receiving increasing attention. It may cause dyslipidemia, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. However, the association between alcohol consumption and blood lipids in children and adolescents is unclear, and so we aimed to characterize this association.
METHODS: Data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey were extracted from children and adolescents aged 7-18 years for whom information was available on alcohol consumption. The population was divided into drinking and nondrinking groups. The χ2, Student's t, or Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare groups. Univariate and multivariate linear regression and propensity score matching (PSM) analysis were used to identify the association between alcohol consumption and blood lipids.
RESULTS: This study included 408 children and adolescents with 35 drinkers and 373 nondrinkers. The drinkers had significantly lower values of total cholesterol (TC) (3.8 mmol/L for nondrinkers versus 3.5 mmol/L for drinkers, p = 0.002) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (1.3 mmol/L for nondrinkers versus 1.2 mmol/L for drinkers, p = 0.007), but not for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (2.1 mmol/L for nondrinkers versus 2.0 mmol/L for drinkers, p = 0.092) or triglyceride (TG) (0.9 mmol/L for nondrinkers versus 0.8 mmol/L for drinkers, p = 0.21). The univariate and multivariate analyses led to the same conclusions. After PSM there was still a significant negative association between alcohol consumption and TC or HDL-C.
CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol consumption in children and adolescents exhibited significant negative associated with TC and HDL-C, but not with LDL-C or TG. These findings need to be confirmed in future prospective research, and the health effects of blood lipid changes caused by drinking in children and adolescents need to be clarified.